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sustained.
This is a matter which we hope to discuss with the
High Commissioner before he returns to Australia next week.
Nuclear Strike Force
6. It is understood that the Defence Secretary will raise the
question of possible ways of deterring the Chinese from a military
attack on the Colony; in the Ministerial Committee the possibility
of stationing in Hong Kong a small nuclear strike force similar
to that stationed in Singapore at the time of the Indonesian
confrontation was mentioned.
7. This particular suggestion will need the most careful
consideration since to station such a force in Hong Kong, on
territory which the Chinese Government regard as theirs, must we
think be regarded by them as an act of major provocation.
Visits of American naval vessels.
8. The Ministerial Committee recorded the view that the presence
of United States ships had a good effect on local confidence,
could be useful if an emergency evacuation became necessary and
could be expected to have some deterrent effect on the action of
the Chinese Government.
9. These are all valid points.
Nevertheless it is important that
we should require the Americans to observe the guide lines agreed
with them last year for the use of facilities in the Colony by
their Armed Forces. These were designed to put limits on e.g.
visits by American ships so that the visible signs of American
military presence in Hong Kong did not become so blatant that the
Chinese would feel bound to react strongly. The recent decision to
cancel the visit of the American carrier "Constellation" was taken
in part because the proposed programme of visits of large naval
vessels would have departed substantially from the guide lines.
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